Thursday, March 5, 2015

India
play West Indies in the 28th match of World Cup 2015 tomorrow at Perth ~ the
capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. The
majority of the metropolitan area of Perth is located on the Swan
Coastal Plain, a narrow strip between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp, a
low coastal escarpment. Perth was originally founded by Captain James Stirling
in 1829 as the administrative centre of the Swan River Colony, and gained city
status in 1856.

India
first played [then mighty] West Indies in a ODI in the 2nd WC 1979 at
Birmingham and was beaten by 9 wickets.
Everything went right for them from the moment Clive Lloyd won an
important toss – and their pacers were bowling with many men close to bat,
reducing India to 77 for 5 - only
Vishwanath made 75; the last pair, Venkataraghavan and Bedi, fought bravely but
a score of 191 was never going to be enough for West Indies. In the 1983 tour, India beat West Indies at
Berbice, Albion, Guyana by 27 runs.
Gavaskar opened with Ravi
Shastri, who was opening for the first time in an ODI. Gavaskar made a fine 90 off 117 balls while
Kapil Dev made a belligerent 72 off a mere 38 balls – unimaginably fast of that
time matching Viv Richards. Later in the
1983 WC, India started on a winning note beating WI at Birmingham, Old
Trafford. Things are far different now !

The
last time these sides played each other, West Indies pulled out of the tour of
India midway over a payment dispute with their board. That led to a change in
leadership and the exit of a couple of players. After 1983, the teams have played thrice in
World Cup - in the last ten ODIs between the teams India has won 7-3. This has been a different ball game – the
leather hunt – 27 matches thus far – already 21 centuries including a double
hundred. Here is the top 5 century
makers. It was a match Bangladesh would
ever remember today. Playing their 5th
WC – they were first pushed to the wall with Kyle Coetzer hitting a fine big
century – Bangladesh are yet to have a century in WC. Tamim Iqbal came within a shot of ending and got 0ut for 95. 156 Runs scored by Kyle Coetzer, the highest
World Cup score by any batsman from a current non-Test nation and the imposing
318 was eclipsed with ease by Bangladesh.

Player

Runs

Balls

4s

6s

SR

Team

Opposition

Chris Gayle

215

147

10

16

146.25

West Indies

v Zimbabwe

David Warner

178

133

19

5

133.83

Australia

v Afghanistan

AD de Villiers

162

66

17

8

245.45

South Africa

v West Indies

TM Dilshan

161

146

22

0

110.27

Sri Lanka

v Bangladesh

Hashim Amla

159

128

16

4

124.21

South Africa

v Ireland

KJ Coetzer

156

134

17

4

116.41

Scotland

v Bangladesh

In
a tournament where batsmen are making merry, Shane Watson is fading away. At Chandigarh, during a mid-tour, Watson
walked out from a test, following the announcement that he, alongside three
other players, had been suspended for supposed disciplinary infractions. Now Watson
is finding his way out – dropped. For
England, things are not going well – of the many heads sought, Finn is also there.
During the Scotland game, Finn passed 140kph quite often as his spells
progressed; but he is no longer effective.
Some blame David Saker, the
England bowling coach, for Finn's troubles. Others blame Richard Johnson, the
Middlesex bowling coach. Certainly, neither have been able to cure him.

Sachin
Tendulkar has called the ICC's decision to reduce the number of teams in the
2019 World Cup "a backward step" in the global expansion of cricket
and described the lack of consistent matches available to Associate sides as
"unfair". Tendulkar, an ambassador for the World Cup on behalf of the
ICC, told an audience at an exclusive dinner in Sydney that the ICC should
instead be exploring ways to expand the next World Cup to as many as 25 teams. While
calling for an expansion of the World Cup, Tendulkar also spoke about his
concerns for the 50-over format and said he had suggested to the ICC about
splitting ODIs into two 25-over innings. This was tried out in Australia – not with
great success.